Is it the 1970s all over again?
In my book, Telephone Diplomacy, I focus on US-Soviet relations in the 1970s. This was a period of seemingly improved relations between the superpowers, known as "detente". However, simultaneously there were dramatic developments around the globe which had a detrimental effect on American security. From 1975-1980, ten new nations adopted communist governments, including Nicaragua and Granada in America's own backyard. This was particularly concerning if one recalled that the Soviets had attempted to deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in nearby Cuba in the 1960s.
One of the first of these aforementioned new communist nations was Vietnam, where the US had fought alongside the non-communist South against the communist North. When the US pulled out of Vietnam in January, 1973, there was an imperfect, but independent and non-communist South Vietnam opposite a communist North Vietnam. Although many believed that the South Vietnamese simply would not fight for their freedom, for two years the government in Saigon held on with no military aid and only minimal economic assistance from the United States while the North Vietnamese received increased amounts of equipment and arms from the Soviets. Eventually Vietnam was united under a communist government in 1975, and thousands of people were imprisoned or killed. Even though they had been willing to remain in their country during ten years of the American-led war, thousands began to flee Vietnam during the communist "peace," many risking their lives on barely sea-worthy vessels in order to reach the United States. How much did the American retreat embolden communists in Moscow and elsewhere for the rest of the decade?
Now Al-Qaeda's recent takeover of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, suggests that history may be repeating itself. Once again, when US troops withdrew in December, 2011 there was an imperfect, but relatively stable parliamentary democracy led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. However, in two and a half years the combination of the US troop withdrawal and al-Maliki's favoritism to his religous sect, the majority Shiites, against the Sunni minority has invited division and played right into Al-Qaeda's hands. Even more ominously, Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq have linked up with their compatriots in Syria, declaring a new Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). With a defined territory, and access to an army, weapons, equipment, and Iraq's oil revenues, ISIS could be in a primed position to spread terror throughout the Middle East and around the world.
Telephone Diplomacy: The Secret Talks Behind US-Soviet Detente During the Cold War, 1969-1977, by Daniel S. Stackhouse, Jr., Ph.D. is available at http://www.createspace.com/4681391
One of the first of these aforementioned new communist nations was Vietnam, where the US had fought alongside the non-communist South against the communist North. When the US pulled out of Vietnam in January, 1973, there was an imperfect, but independent and non-communist South Vietnam opposite a communist North Vietnam. Although many believed that the South Vietnamese simply would not fight for their freedom, for two years the government in Saigon held on with no military aid and only minimal economic assistance from the United States while the North Vietnamese received increased amounts of equipment and arms from the Soviets. Eventually Vietnam was united under a communist government in 1975, and thousands of people were imprisoned or killed. Even though they had been willing to remain in their country during ten years of the American-led war, thousands began to flee Vietnam during the communist "peace," many risking their lives on barely sea-worthy vessels in order to reach the United States. How much did the American retreat embolden communists in Moscow and elsewhere for the rest of the decade?
Now Al-Qaeda's recent takeover of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, suggests that history may be repeating itself. Once again, when US troops withdrew in December, 2011 there was an imperfect, but relatively stable parliamentary democracy led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. However, in two and a half years the combination of the US troop withdrawal and al-Maliki's favoritism to his religous sect, the majority Shiites, against the Sunni minority has invited division and played right into Al-Qaeda's hands. Even more ominously, Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq have linked up with their compatriots in Syria, declaring a new Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). With a defined territory, and access to an army, weapons, equipment, and Iraq's oil revenues, ISIS could be in a primed position to spread terror throughout the Middle East and around the world.
Telephone Diplomacy: The Secret Talks Behind US-Soviet Detente During the Cold War, 1969-1977, by Daniel S. Stackhouse, Jr., Ph.D. is available at http://www.createspace.com/4681391
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